“Watching cable TV and listening to radio last night and this morning, I found myself trapped in an endless loop of panicked victims screaming and fleeing the suicide bombing at a concert in Manchester, England. Shaky witness cellphone video aired again and again, and the image of a girl leaping off a staircase lodged in my mind.

“Yes, the attack is news. But does replaying footage of victims for hours or turning over the entire homepage to the story, as CNN, Fox News and Breitbart did, elevate the public understanding of why terrorism is committed or how to stop it? Or is it just lazy and sensationalist tabloid journalism, blowing the murder of 22 people out of proportion to stoke fear? …

“Study after study — not to mention the diaries and social media accounts kept by perpetrators — reveal that terrorists and mass shooters thrive on the media attention and fame they’re guaranteed (even posthumously) by committing horrific crimes.

“Michael Jetter, a behavioral economist at the University of Western Australia, analyzed 60,000 terrorist attacks between 1970 and 2012 that were reported in The New York Times. He found that terrorist groups have increasingly sought in recent years to exploit social and mass media, keeping their message alive on the “oxygen of publicity.” From videotaped beheadings by ISIS and al-Qaeda to Boko Haram’s kidnapping of young girls in Nigeria, the idea is to garner maximum media attention to draw impressionable recruits and instill fear in everyone else.”

The other driver of publicity is, of course, the Deep State. Terrorism serves its needs. A frightened people is an easily led people, willing to surrender civil liberties for the illusion of safety — and increase the funding and power of the security services.

Terrorism in western Europe

“In 2015, the last full year covered by the Global Terrorism Database, 175 people in western Europe died in terrorist attacks. That was a huge leap from preceding years, coming close to the 2004 toll of 196, all but five of whom perished in the train bombings in Madrid. Yet neither figure would be thought an unusual yearly tally in the Seventies, when groups such as the IRA, Eta Basque separatists and the Red Brigades were active and western Europe was a hub of terrorism. …The ebbing of terror attacks in the West from the Seventies peak is at odds with the public perception that the threat has rarely been higher.”

Terrorism in America

“Foreign-born terrorists who entered the country, either as immigrants or tourists, were responsible for 88% (or 3,024) of the 3,432 murders caused by terrorists on U.S. soil from 1975 through the end of 2015. …From 1975 through 2015, 154 foreign-born terrorists murdered 3,024 people, 98.6% of whom were killed on September 11, 2001. The other 1.4% of murder victims were dispersed over the 41-year period, with two spikes in 1993 and 2015.”

The Business Insider compares the odds of an American dying from terrorism vs. the odds of the serious dangers, making our fears look silly. More pointedly, CNN puts “American deaths in terrorism vs. gun violence in one graph.” Their graph shows the story. Terrorism — conducted by the Right, the Left, or jihadists — has killed roughly 80 people per year for the past 15 years (not shown on the graph: 47 in 2015, 66 in 2016). This is a drop in the tide of blood that washes over America each year.

Americans’ fear of terrorism

“A wide expanse of America’s populace finds itself engulfed in a collective fear …a creeping fear of being caught in a mass rampage has unmistakably settled itself firmly in the American consciousness”

Why so much fear? Nemil Dalal at Priceonomics looks to the New York Times for the answer to their question “How Media Fuels Our Fear of Terrorism“. The NYT’s coverage of terrorism is disproportionate to its contribution to American death (but it’s great clickbait).

Let’s not forget the people ultimately responsible for American’s bouts of hysterical fear: the American people. We choose to believe in propaganda despite the facts. Not just about terrorism. Fear has become one of the major tools our leaders use to influence us (see many posts documenting this).

What kind of people are so easily frightened, and so easily manipulated when frightened? What do other peoples, friends and foes, see when they look at this sorry spectacle?

Conclusions

“Cowardice, alone of all the vices, is purely painful — horrible to anticipate, horrible to feel, horrible to remember…”
— An insight from a demon (they know us well), from The Screwtape Letters, by C. S. Lewis (1959).

None of this implies that terrorism is not a danger, or that western governments should decrease their vigilance or efforts to suppress terrorism. But we should have a sense of proportion, and allocate resources to fight terrorism in proportion to other threats (for example, the oceans are dying).

We were strong once and can be again. We can take inspiration from our history, imperfect as it is, and change. It’s a step to a better future.

The gent from NIH with his response was actually quite reality-based.
There is a real disconnect from reality in certain parts of the USA considering this Terrorism thing. (And a few other realms also). It is observable but it is not in the general population. Never have I had a serious discussion with anyone about fear of Terrorism, here or in the EU. Anxiety and stress are an essential part of life and we have our fair share in this country. Witness the rising use of prescriptions for Benzodiazpiens if you disagree. And I suspect it is not presecibed for terror fears.
However it should be a manadatory Med for most media and policy (and political) types in DC and NYC. Those people are clearly suffering…daily, hourly. Sadly for them it is part of their milieu! These people are seriously involved in convincing each other of the righteousness of their version of a reality most of us do not share or engage in.
People actually read the NYT beyond a quick look at the headlines?
People actually take seriously the shrill anxiety ridden non stop stream of consciousness banter on CNN, FOX or any major television presentation?
Really?
Well you need to stop…..its bad for your health. No wonder Katy Perry thinks that life is Dark!
Try making friends with a Muslim. Try it with an Irishman especially if he or she is a former IRA member. The Basque’s I know, yes few, are bright and engaging people!

The media, political establishment here are deranged. Is that news to you? Hardly I doubt….we’ll be alright.

You need to get out more. It’s one of the most reliable news sources on the planet.

“However it should be a manadatory Med for most media and policy (and political) types in DC and NYC. Those people are clearly suffering…daily, hourly. Sadly for them it is part of their milieu”

This post says the exact opposite of that. Fear-mongering is a successful strategy for both the US government and the news media. It was worked spectacularly well. Your guess that they in fact believe it, and suffer from this belief. My guess is that they don’t and don’t.

I suspect that atheists like myself are susceptible to our own kind of Islamophobia. We talk about how backwards Islam is and how prone to terrorism Muslims seem to be… But it turns out that there just aren’t that many Islamic terrorists out there, and they just aren’t that good at what they’re trying to do. Why be so afraid? Maybe we’re just looking for excuses to hate religion.